Panasonic announces new DVCPRO HD studio VTR

Panasonic Broadcast has introduced a new full-size DVCPRO HD studio VTR, the AJ-HD1800, for broadcast, post-production and mobile production applications.

The VTR offers all of the features of its predecessor, the AJ-HD1700, plus 720/50 recording, a built-in upconverter, UMID/VANC metadata recording and playback, and expanded IEEE 1394 interface capabilities.

The multiformat HD1800 records for 126 minutes at 100Mb/s with 4:2:2 sampling and intraframe compression on a single XL DVCPRO HD cassette in both 1080i and 720p. It also features a built-in up-, down- and crossconverter for easy conversion between 1080i and 720p, for downconverting 1080i or 720p to 480i or 480p, and for upconverting prerecorded DV, DVCAM, DVCPRO, DVCPRO50 tapes to 1080i or 720p HD.

It plays back all DVCPRO HD sources, including 1080/23.98p over 59.94i, as well as all existing 1/4in DV-based compression formats including DVCPRO50, DVCPRO, DVCAM and DV.

The HD1800 can also convert 720/23.98p (over 59.94p) and 720/25p (over 60p) footage acquired by Panasonic AJ-HDC27 VariCam HD Cinema cameras to 1080/24p or 1080/25psf, which allows the VTR to act as a source deck in a 1080p-based linear or nonlinear editing bay.

For more information, visit www.panasonic.com/broadcast.